June 19, 2006

After nine days of sport that convinced some of us the beautiful game had a chance to breathe again at this World Cup, the Italians and the Americans bludgeoned the theory by fighting out, too often literally, a drawn contest.

There were 34 fouls, some of them disgraceful. There were three red cards, all of them justified, and three more yellow cards that might have turned the deeper colour. There were two goals, two memorable saves from either goalkeeper, and a match of shame petered out

The most distressing aspect of this story is the apparent attitude of our current rulers that the Constitution is an obstacle to be overcome -- by conducting dirty business abroad or by wildly disingenuous interpretations of laws and the Constitution.

Just look at what these supposed worshipers at the shrine of "strict constructionism" and "original meaning" have done to the 2001 anti-terrorism resolution.

I remember as a kid watching Jimmy Connors win a tennis match while suffering from diahorrhea. I was transfixed by the spectacle of this grown man pushing himself through game after game, while racing off court at every opportunity. I could not understand, then, why anyone would do such a thing to themselves (least of all on global TV). I still cannot.

That is not to say that such attitudes to sport are peculiar to the USA. But these are the values which the USA presumes to export to the rest of the world, not without some success. Win at any costs.

Why? What do you actually "win"?

So likewise we have wannabe star lawyers joining the CIA to massage the Constitition into some deformed parody of its original meaning. Why? Really, what is the point?